Disclosure: I received the Covergirl Tru Naked Smoky Palette and Covergirl Lid Lockup Eyeshadow Primer free for review. All opinions are my own.

Growing up with a mom for a makeup artist probably sparked my interest in makeup at an early age. I still remember her teaching me how to blend. “You don’t want to see where your eyeshadow begins or ends,” she told me. I was so excited when I scored the chance to receive the Holiday Voxbox from Influenster that contained the Covergirl Tru Naked Smoky Palette and eyeshadow primer.

A little disclosure: I am a huge Urban Decay fan. I own all of the Naked Palettes, and I use them pretty much daily. I, of course, mix and match those shadows with others that I own, but I have been so impressed with their pigmentation, coverage and staying power, that I’ve been hooked ever since I bought the original when it debuted.

It was intriguing to me when other brands started launching “Naked” palettes (and even more intrigued that they actually put “Naked” on their packaging, which seems a little tricky in the legal sense to me, but I guess they aren’t doing anything wrong).

I was actually pretty impressed by the Covergirl Tru Naked Smoky Palette. When Urban Decay announced they were discontinuing their Smoky Palette I was so upset because it was my absolute favorite! Receiving the Cover Girl Smoky Palette was a great way to see if there was an alternative to my beloved palette that I can no longer get!

I thought the best way to review it would be to compare it to the Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette side by side.

Covergirl Tru Naked Smoky Palette vs. Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette

Shade Comparison

The first thing I noticed upon comparing the two palettes is that the Covergirl Tru Naked Smoky Palette has fewer colors than the Urban Decay Naked Smoked Palette. While the Urban Decay version has 12 shades ranging from nudes, champagnes, silvers, blacks, and the perfect rich brown, the Covergirl palette features 8 eyeshadow shades. The biggest difference is that Covergirl removed the browns and nudes that Urban Decay offers.

I swatched the Covergirl colors with their Urban Decay counterparts in the image below. Note that the Tru Naked Smoky shades are swatched on top of the Covergirl Lid Lockup Eyeshadow Primer, and the Naked Smoky shades are swatched on top of the Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion.

The Covergirl Tru Naked Smoky Palette is swatched on the top, while the comparable Urban Decay shades are swatched underneath.

1. Ember vs High

The shimmery highlight shade in the Covergirl palette is Ember – a white with subtle rose gold shimmer. The Urban Decay shade, High, is less white and more of a champagne, so these aren’t really dupes of each other. Ember is a lot lighter than High and can be used on the brow bone, while High is more of a lid color (at least for my coloring).

2. Slate vs Armor

These silver grays are pretty comparable in shade, with Armor (Urban Decay) having a little more shine than Slate (Covergirl).

3. Charcoal vs Dagger

These shades are the richer gray of the two palettes. Charcoal is another great dupe in the Covergirl version of the Smoky Palette. Dagger is a little more rich in color than Charcoal.

4. Jet vs Black Market

Arguably the grounding force of both palettes, the matte black shades. Jet is a pretty good dupe to Black Market. Black Market is definitely more pigmented and takes less product to get a super dark coverage.

5. Mist vs Smolder

These shades are both super dark purples. These are definitely my least used shades of both of the palettes, mostly because they are both so dark that they purple shading is almost lost (you can hardly tell either is purple in the photo above). Like Black Market, Smolder is more pigmented and richer than Mist.

6. Ignite vs Password

Both are deep, taupey, mushroom browns in a matte finish. Ignite is slightly lighter than Password, which I don’t mind as it helps to distinguish itself from the other colors in the palette.

7. Flick vs Slanted

These are both beautiful shades! Flick and Slanted are saturated silver with a tiny hint of blue undertones. I found these shades to be almost indistinguishable from each other.

8. Glow vs Thirteen

These are the matte highlighting shades of both Smoky Palettes. Just like the shimmery versions, Urban Decay’s Thirteen is more nude/champagne in color than Covergirl’s Glow. Glow is more of a matte white. Both shades require multiple coats of shadow to fully display their color.

9. Urban Decay shades that weren’t duped by Covergirl

Ok, this is where my biggest complaint with the Covergirl palette is. Urban Decay offers four more shades than the Tru Naked palette. And for my complexion, they are essential to a fully rounded Smoky palette. Here are the swatches of the additional colors that Urban Decay offers in their Naked Smoky Palette:

While none of these shades are especially smoky (other than Whiskey) they round out the palette and distinguish the colors so you can create a ton of looks. Especially if you like to blend multiple colors like me.

Dirtysweet (a shimmery copper accented gold) is arguably the most pigmented shade of the Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette. Radar offers a lighter brown than the super pigmented dark brown of Whiskey, but with a hint of gold shimmer. Combust is a perfect nude transition shade that the Covergirl palette is aching for. The Covergirl palette really skipped out on transition shades, unless you want to use white, which I rarely do.

Plus, for me at least, Whiskey is the ultimate dark smoky brown. It’s super matte and highly pigmented. Urban Decay – please start selling this in your single Tokens!!

Pigmentation Comparison

The elephant in the room of pretty much every drugstore vs. higher end shadow – pigmentation. Of course Urban Decay is more pigmented. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t achieve the same look with the Covergirl shades; you’ll just have to put more effort (and product) into it!

Quality Comparison

I was pretty impressed with the quality of the Covergirl Tru Naked Smoky Palette. Especially in comparison with other drugstore shadows, these shadows are creamier and offer fairly decent pigmentation. However, they are definitely more “powdery” than the Urban Decay shades. You’ll experience more fall out when applying the Covergirl shadows.

Conclusions

In a nutshell, the Covergirl Tru Naked Smoky Palette is a pretty good dupe palette of the Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette. However, they cut out the colors that help make the palette well rounded. The quality is not quite as great but at a much cheaper price tag ($9.99 for the Covergirl palette at Target, vs $54 for the Urban Decay palette at Sephora – while they still have it in stock anyway) that’s totally ok.

Definitely add this palette to your collection if you like to experiment with smoky eye looks. The value is way higher than the price tag.

Let me know in the comments below what your favorite eyeshadow palette is. I’m always looking for new ones to add to my collection!

Stay Dairing.

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